CHICAGO–Boaz Maoz, head of global sales for Cisco Kinetic, said embracing the internet of things (IoT) is an imperative for business success going forward, but it’s not easy. “Customers are struggling,” he said during a keynote presentation at the Enterprise IoT World event.
Maoz laid out “the four main challenges that I hear in every customer engagement”:
- The complexity of connecting, securing and managing a wide array of devices;
- Accessing data that can be, effectively, “locked inside its sources;”
- Moving the right data to the right application;
- And maintaining end-to-end security.
Since we’re doing bulleted lists, Maoz laid out a five-fold approach that Cisco uses with its Kinetic platform:
- Fast and secure device on-boarding;
- Support for any access layer, proprietary or standardized;
- Isolate IoT traffic from other network traffic while maintaining security;
- Meet “environmental needs” with a portfolio of industrialized products that can stand up to vertical-specific needs;
- And provide real-time visibility and control of connection to each device.
“In the IoT space,” Maoz said, “it’s going to be all about data. IoT can disrupt everything.”
While data is clearly a part of the IoT equation, any project, regardless of vertical, has to make business sense. That’s the point Steve Brumer, 151 Advisors partner, plans to make in his comments during the ongoing event.
“Where’s the sales; where’s the return on investment?” Brumer said. “I’m not going to talk about analytics; I’m not going to talk about data; I’m not going to talk about numbers. The use cases are there. I’m more concerned about how are these companies making money? For me, it’s all about monetization and commercialization.”
